Hi everyone! We had a blast at the 2011 LTUE (life the universe and everything) conference in Provo, Utah. James Dashner was the keynote speaker and he did a fantastic job keeping everyone entertained. Most of the Writing Snippets Crew have known James since he started on this journey and it is great seeing an author gain so much success in such a short time period. Not to mention he is charming and fun to hang out with- not that he has much time for that anymore. Here are three of our Crew with him, Alice Beesley, James Dashner, Lillian J. Banks and Nichole Jarnagin.

Here is James giving his speech to all the writers. I love to hear an author’s journey, and he did a fantastic job. Back when James had the time to do so, he visited our writer’s group and helped critique. I love author’s who share their time and talents and give back to the aspiring writing community like that. James, you Rock! We wish you much success and then some 🙂 Here is his blog James Dashner. Read his book Maze Runner before the movie comes out 🙂

If you haven’t heard of them, go and check them out: www.writingexcuses.com Dan Wells is our group favorite, but we are biased. He visited our writer’s group last year, helped critique and had us all cracking up. This was after I am Not a Serial Killer came out in England, but not in the states yet so he was not as busy. We screwed up though and did not feed him bacon 😦 Another awesome writer giving back to the community 🙂

Lisa Mangum was there and a slew of other fabulously gifted writer’s helping out the community.

We loved every minute of it and meeting many new people. Especially those of you who recognized us and told us what a great job we are doing- Thank you! Even if you are lurkers, ahem, we are doing these podcasts to help the aspiring writer in ways we wish we could have had when we started.

Alice hosts this episode as we interview the delightful Lisa Mangum about her Novels: The Hourglass Door, The Golden Spiral, The Forgotten Locket, and her fascinating story of how she discovered the idea for her novels, and how she had to keep her book secret from her coworkers. We also discuss the hot topic of Prologues. Are they in? Are they out?

She is also an editor at Shadow Mountain and Deseret Book. Did we mention she is an award winning author? Go to her website to find out more. Here is a quick Bio: Lisa Mangum has loved and worked with books ever since elementary school, when she volunteered at the school library during recess. Her first paying job was shelving books at the Sandy Library. She worked for five years at Waldenbooks while she attended the University of Utah, graduating with honors with a degree in English. An avid reader of all genres, she has worked in the publishing department for Deseret Book since 1997.
Besides books, Lisa loves movies, sunsets, spending time with her family, trips to Disneyland, and vanilla ice cream topped with fresh raspberries. She lives in Taylorsville, Utah, with her husband, Tracy. She is the author of The Hourglass Door (which was named the 2009 YA Book of the Year by ForeWord Reviews) and The Golden Spiral.

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